Henry Cuellar
D · U.S. House, TX-28 · Tier 1/2
Tier 1/2, between “Firmly pro-Israel” and “Mainstream pro-Israel”
A senior appropriator who broke with most Democrats to vote for nearly every pro-Israel measure the Republican majority brought: the February 2024 Israel-only supplemental, H.R.8369 to force the paused bomb shipment (May 2024), both ICC-sanctions bills (Jun 2024, Jan 2025), the June 2024 amendment barring the State Department from citing Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures and the September 2026 college anti-boycott bill; he also signed the April 2024 Gottheimer–Wilson letter urging Speaker Johnson to put the Senate’s aid package to “an immediate vote” so that “critical aid is delivered to Israel”, and voted for that package, H.Res.894 and the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and No on the 2025 Greene and July 2026 Massie cuts. He signed the January 2024 letter denouncing South Africa’s ICJ case, whose signers “thoroughly reject its charge of genocide,” and the May 2024 letter urging terrorism sanctions on UNRWA employees, and cosponsored the U.S.-Israel Defense Partnership Act (2025) and the U.S.-Israel FUTURES Act (2026). He called Israel’s June 2025 attack on Iran “defensive strikes” (“I support Israel’s right to defend itself”), and his October 2025 statement on the Gaza deal spoke of “two years of immense suffering” while asking that “Israel retains the means to defend itself against future threats.”
A 1/2, not a clean 1. His record is close to zero-daylight — he split from most Democrats to back H.R.7217, H.R.8369, both ICC-sanctions bills, the Gaza casualty-figures amendment and the anti-boycott bill, signed the letters against South Africa’s ICJ case and UNRWA staff, and voted No on Massie — and no statement of concern for Palestinian civilians was found: his one humanitarian line (“two years of immense suffering”, Oct 2025) is generic and came in the same statement that insisted Israel keep the means to defend itself. He is short of a clean 1 because none of this is leadership: he has written no Israel legislation (none among his 98 sponsored bills and resolutions or 26 amendments), leads no Israel caucus, and his public brand is the border and appropriations; cosponsoring the Defense Partnership and FUTURES Acts is going along, not leading. His Nays on the November 2023 Republican bill and the Tlaib censure were the majority Democratic votes.
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).